"The Pro-Israel Lobby" which is more accurately described as the
Zionist Lobby. As my regular readers know, I insist that it's wrong to
call this lobby pro-Israel because to do so implies that it speaks for
all Israeli Jews, and it does not. Headed by AIPAC (the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee) which speaks for not more than about 25% of
Jewish Americans, it has been called the NRA of foreign policy lobbies because of its ability to make or break politicians, including presidents.

The statement that best sums up for me the consequences of all this
financial fire power on America's political system was the one made by
the man I would like to see as America's next president -- Rocky
Anderson. Who is he?

On Monday 19 December, at a press conference in Washington D.C., Anderson
announced the creation of a new third party, the Justice Party, and his
intention to run for the presidency under its banner.

Just turned 60, Rocky Anderson, a former two-term mayor of Utah's
Salt Lake City, has an impressive record of service to what could be
called the public good on many fronts. For reasons of space I have to
ask readers who want to know more about him to take a look at his
Wikipedia entry.

On 11 August last year he denounced the Democratic Party and resigned his membership of it. In his letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
he said: "Until the Democratic Party shows some spine and draws a line
in the sand -- that an end to the tax breaks for the wealthy needs to be
part of any debt/budget bill -- please take my name off your list... I'm
done with the Democratic Party. As I said on Amy Goodman's
show a couple years ago, I've put my proud Democrat coffee mug in
storage. I think now I'll just throw it in the garbage and have done
with it... The Constitution
has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper.
It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same
interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party."

I was inspired by Amy Goodman's interview with Anderson for Open
Democracy very shortly after his announcement of the formation of the
Justice Party.

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The great thing about television is that it gives viewers the
opportunity not only to listen to what speakers are saying but also to
study their body language as they are speaking and listening to the
questions. In other words, television gives viewers the opportunity to
ask and answer an important question -- Do I believe this guy or gal?
With Tony Blair, for example, my answer was always "No." And I regret to
say it has become "No" when I listen to President Obama and watch his
body language. Anderson's body language told me he is a man I can
believe and that makes what he had to say more than important -- even
though he has no chance of becoming president in 2013. (After that...?)
Here is what he said in answer to one of Goodman's questions...

"We launched the Justice Party because the entire system is so corrupt.
It's so diseased. We know that the public interest is not being served
by anyone in the system right now, particularly the two dominant parties
who have sustained this corrupt system and who are sustained by it...
Obama received more money from Wall Street than any presidential
candidate ever. And they got a great return on their investment... We need
people in public office who are pledged not to just represent the
people's interest in the same system, but to change the system
and get the corrupting influence of corporate and other concentrated
wealth out of our electoral system and out of our system of governance."

Common sense says that the only way to end the financial corruption
of American politics is by the people, the voters, demanding that it be
ended.

A real clean-up would require legislation giving effect to the
proposition that all elections will be funded by only one source -- public money raised from taxation, with the revenue ring-fenced so that it could only be used for elections.
There are about 100 million voters in America and ten dollars added
each year to their tax bill would provide enough money for all election
funding. Ten dollars a year is surely a very small price for each voter
to pay for something approaching real democracy.

Given that Congress's approval rating is closer to 10 percent than 20
percent according to the latest polls, organizing a rolling and rising
tide of people power to demand the necessary constitutional amendment or
amendments to get the corrupting influence of lobby funding out of the
electoral system ought not to be a mission impossible.

In other words, if enough American voters were aware of how corrupt
their political system actually is, and if then they cared enough, they
could cause the corruption to be terminated. What a demonstration of
real democracy in action that would be!

In an opinion piece for The Electronic Intifada on 27 December, Ilan Pappe wrote the following...

"If we had a wish list for 2012 as Palestinians and friends of Palestine, one of the top items ought to be our
hope that we can translate the dramatic shift in recent years in world
public opinion into political action against Israeli policies on the
ground... We know why this has not yet materialized: the political, intellectual and cultural elites of the West cower (crouch or cringe in fear) whenever they even contemplate acting according to their own consciences as well as the wishes of their societies.
This last year was particularly illuminating for me in that respect. I
encountered that timidity at every station in the many trips I took for
the cause I believe in. And these personal experiences were accentuated
by the more general examples of how governments and institutions caved in under intimidation from Israel and pro-Zionist Jewish organizations."

In America Zionist intimidation which causes the "caving in" manifests itself in two ways.

One is funding for election campaigns and the threat, actually the
promise, not only to deny funding to candidates who won't commit to
toeing Zionism's line but to fund their opponents.

The other is delivery of Zionist lobby organized Jewish votes in
close election races. (In a few states that are home to large Jewish
populations -- New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Florida -- the Jewish vote can be decisive).

Once upon a time, when most Jewish Americans voted for Democratic
Party candidates, Republicans running for office did not bother to
grovel for Jewish campaign funds and votes. An indicator of how times
are changing is that in the current race for the White House, and with
the exception of Ron Paul, Republican candidates are grovelling for
Jewish campaign funds and votes as much if not more than Obama. In that
context it can be said that the Zionization of American politics has
been completed.

Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who has
covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world
and specialized in the Middle East. He is a researcher and author and a participant at leadership level in the search for peace.His Latest book (more...)